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"Co "Be sical"

Okay, so if there’s no connection between our records and hers, maybe I’ll have to search just for her I create a search using what infor for a female, a mother of triplets, who participated in an adoption sixteen years ago I alsoshe could have been anywhere between twenty and thirty-five when she had us

I click submit and hile the coht have had her record wiped clean, or those ant ht have done it for her To prevent us fro

For sixteen years--or at least as many of them as I can remember--I’ve knoas adopted I’ve known Mom and Dad were my parents in every way that e to find ical thing either Thinking about her, iave us up, has made me curious I want her help, yes, but I want to know her too

Beep-beep

I stop and turn to stare at the computer screen Even from several feet away I can see that there is a result

Racing back to ainst the wood as I fly back into ital black on white, is a single entry

Cassandra Gregory

I bitehand, I reach for the mouse When I click on the name, it takes e and address at the time of adoption She enty-four and lived somewhere in the Mission district

I scroll down, past dozens of empty fields No phone number, no father’s name, no next of kin, no physical description At the bottom there is a notes field Two coms They look like they ritten years apart

Requests daughters be given following naency, requested access to adoption records Request denied, per California Family Code § 9203

After the second note is a date--four years ago--and a phone nuo on, but people have been found using less It’s a place to start, anyway

I’ve just sent the profile to my printer when I hear the front-door lock click open

My heart pounds Dad will be at work until late Mom said she wouldn’t be hoination coood All of them ht to the front door, I can’t sneak out and get in a better position Instead, I pressfor sounds of the intruder

At first, I don’t hear anything I wonder if I iined the sound I was pretty focused on my search Maybe I--

Squeak

A floorboard in the hall, just outside ht of a footstep My heart punches against my chest